Try to keep from squinting

The farmer looked back at the freshly harvested corn field trying to find his dog. The old golden retriever had a bad habit of following the combine while Daniel Shepherd drove through the rows of tall field corn, and there had been many close call in the past. Daniel whistled for Jack, but the dog wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Jack the golden retriever was panting on the porch, patiently waiting for his master to return.

Daniel noticed something strange up in the hopper. There was some kind of liquid dripping from the chute where the corn was blown up after being cut and shucked. He just shook his head and started climbing up the large machine.

Jack had learned a few good tricks over the years and he had just performed Daniel’s favorite one, fetching a cold Budweiser from the refrigerator in the basement.

As Daniel got up to the lip of the machine’s hopper he saw that the liquid was red. Peering over the edge, he steeled himself for what he expected would be a gruesome sight.

Jack kept panting on the porch, eyeing the beer as drops of condensation formed on the cold can.

“Damn it, Jack!”, yelled the farmer looking at the red splotch that had formed on the mound of corn kernels. He began to cry as he jumped down off the machine

Daniel Shepherd was still crying as he walked up to the lonely clapboard farmhouse that he shared with his old friend. He didn’t think he could be so emotional over that old dog and he kept looking around, just hoping the dog had only lost a tail or even a leg in the combine.

When he got to the stairs he saw a beer sweating on the porch, Jack’s last hurrah, and he dropped to his knees weeping.

Jack heard his master on the porch and bounded out of the house and nearly knocked Daniel over as he licked the salty tears from Daniel’s face. The two of them shared a long tussle and then Daniel grabbed the beer and cracked it open as Jack laid his head down on Daniel’s lap. They sat on the grass and watched the sun set over the fields. Just when the sky started turning bright red, Daniel put his hand on Jack’s head and yelled over his shoulder, “Darlene! Come out and see this sunset, it’s beautiful.” He turned around to see if she was on the porch, but she wasn’t there. “Darlene?”